Overwatch official graphic novel scrapped because it screwed fan theories

Last year, Blizzard was supposed to release a graphic novel for Overwatch dubbed First Strike. The story would tell the tale of the first Overwatch team, their origins and everything in between.

Right before release, it was canceled. The work was supposedly done, but the book was dropped from production and not sold. We now know why.

Speaking with Polygon, Overwatch Game Director Jeff Kaplan revealed that they decided to scrap the book because of all the great fan theories it would have ruined.

We sort of saw Overwatch really open up to the world, and listening to players and the stories they were telling and what they imagined the Omnic crisis to be really made us second guess what we were doing in First Strike…

…We thought, ‘Hey, if we go down this path, it really closes all these doors.’

Sort of a bummer, but this was a good call

While I would have loved to see more in the way of official Overwatch canon, I totally understand the team’s decision here. Why cut off such a wonderful source of fan adoration? All of that fan fiction and fan theory probably leads to more sales than one graphic novel.